JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
Retired U.S. Air Force Colonels Bob Horne and Ed Garland
ambled down the corridor of building 743 at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph March
16. At the junction of two halls, they passed model pilotless airplanes and a
medieval suit of armor.
“I think it’s a flight suit,” one said to the other and both
laughed like brothers who shared some saga long ago.
Horne and Garland, both search and rescue pilots during the
Vietnam War, were meeting with members of the 558th Flying Training Squadron to
share their experiences.
“I didn’t want to talk about it for the first 15 years
afterward,” Horne said during a meeting with Lt. Col. Jack Stallworth, 558th
FTS commander.
Horne opened a manila folder to show maps, photos and logs
from missions in Vietnam. In one log from December 1969 when Horne was a HH-53
Super Jolly Green Giant helicopter pilot, he said he was an eyewitness to the
legendary search and rescue mission known as “Boxer 22.”
Stallworth listened as the older pilot recounted the
maneuvers to attempt an extraction for a desperate aircrew stuck behind enemy
lines. Ultimately, one of two men was rescued, but the other pilot was later
determined to have been killed in action and his remains were recovered in
2003.
“Your voice gets higher,” Horne said, laughing about his
composure while his aircraft was riddled by anti-aircraft fire. “I was just
focused on the mission and trying to get those two men out.”
Horne’s aircraft was in the air eight hours and was refueled
three times in flight.
The rescue mission spanned three days and one other
American, pararescueman Airman 1st Class David Davison, was also killed.
“Boxer 22” was just one chapter of Horne’s experience as a
SAR pilot in Vietnam. He went on to
rescue at least seven men while supporting other missions.
“Training is the most important thing,” Garland said.
When Garland’s F-4 fighter plane was downed by a MiG
fighter, he was wounded and rescued by a SAR helicopter. A fellow crewmember
however, was not and his remains were recovered years later.
Garland lauded the training the Air Force instituted
post-Vietnam, including crew resource management, which he said didn’t have as
much emphasis during his time in Vietnam.
Horne and Garland toured the remotely piloted aircraft
schoolhouse while Stallworth shared icons that serve as a reminder to current
students and faculty of the legacy Air Force flyers over Vietnam left.
Horne then called a group of instructors together, and he
read from Garland’s record of his doomed aircraft and successful extraction.
“You didn’t know this, but the helicopter that brought you
out is the same one they deliberately crashed at the Son Tay prison raid in
November of 1970,” Horne said to Garland with a grin.
“I did not know that,” Garland said, full of surprise.
Son Tay, a prisoner of war camp operated by North Vietnam
during the war, holds a special significance to all Vietnam War veterans. The
camp was the site of a major raid designed to rescue American POWs late in the
war.
“Hosting these gentlemen reconnected us to our squadron
heritage, which is something we don't get enough of,” Stallworth said.